Wednesday, October 20, 2010

2011 Giro d'Italia News

The official presentation of the 2011 Giro di'Italia will be this Saturday, October 23rd in Torino.

What we already know that the 2011 Giro d'Italia:

The 94th edition of the Giro d'Italia will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy ("il Risorgimento"), and will start in Torino (Turin) on May 7, 2011. Torino was the first capital of unified Italy. Torino has only once hosted a Giro start, in 1961. The Giro will begin with a 22 km team time trial from the Reggia di Venaria Reale.

The Giro finish will be returning to Milan in 2011 and will conclude in the Piazza Duomo.

Today arrived news that the Giro will use the Colle delle Finestre on the penultimate stage on May 28th. It will be an agonizing 242 km stage with it's start in Verbania and arrival at Sestriere. The riders will face the formidable Colle delle Finestre with its 18 km, 45 switchbacks, and slopes of more than 12% (9.2% average). And, let's not forget that the last 8 km are gravel! It's going to be an epic stage.

The other news of interest is that the Giro will visit Alpe'dHuez in 2012 to commemorate Fausto Coppi's victory there in 1952. He was the first Italian to win an Alpe' Huez stage (later winners were Bugno and Pantani (two time winners), and Conti and Guerini (one each).

Photo: Finestre

Stories for the Italian Cycling Journal about rides, granfondos, having a good time cycling in Italy, Italian cycling history, etc. are very welcome. Contact me at veronaman@gmail.com. There are more than 1,500 stories in this blog. The search feature to the right works best for finding subjects in the blog and there is also a translate button at the bottom so you can translate each page. What I'm riding.